The American Printer: A Manual of Typography / Containing practical directions for managing all departments of a printing office, as well as complete instructions for apprentices; with several useful tables, numerous schemes for imposing forms in every variety, hints to authors, etc.

by Thomas MacKellar

RULES AND REMEDIES FOR PRESSMEN.

About every five or six sheets a small quantity of ink should be taken; yet this rule is subject to some variation from the nature of the work and quality of the ink. A form of large type or solid matter will require ink to be taken more frequently, and a light form of small type less frequently. During the intervals in which the roller-boy is not employed in brayering out or taking ink, he should be almost constantly engaged in distributing or changing his rollers. He should invariably take ink on the back roller, as it will the sooner be conveyed to the other roller, and, consequently, save time in distributing. When, through carelessness, too much ink has been taken, it should be removed by laying a piece of clean waste paper on one of the rollers, and working it off till the ink is reduced to the proper quantity.

If letters, quadrates, or furniture rise up and black the paper, they should be put down, and the quarter locked up tighter.

If any letters are battered, the quarter they are in must be unlocked, and perfect ones put in by the compositor.

When bearers become too thin by long working, they should be replaced by thicker ones.

When the form gets out of register,—which will often happen by the starting of the quoins which secure the chase,—it must be immediately put in again, as there can scarcely be a greater defect in a book than the want of uniformity in this particular.

If picks, produced by bits of paper, composition, or film of ink and grease or filth, get into the form, they must be removed with the point of a pin or needle; but if the form is much clogged with them, it should be well rubbed over with clean ley, or taken off and washed: in either case, before the pressman goes on again, it should be made perfectly dry by pulling several waste sheets upon it, in order to suck up the water deposited in the cavities of the letter.

The pressman should accustom himself to look over every sheet as he takes it off the tympan: he will thus be enabled not only to observe any want of uniformity in the colour, but also to detect imperfections which might otherwise escape notice.

In order to make perfect uniformity in the colour, the roller-boy should keep his ink well brayered out with the small roller, in proper quantities for the work in hand, and also should change his rollers well after taking ink, and at other times. The rollers are changed by moving the roller-handle slowly to the right and left, while the crank is being turned briskly with the left hand.

Torn or stained sheets met with in the course of work are thrown out and placed under the bank. Creases and wrinkles will frequently appear in the sheets when the paper has been carelessly wet: these should be carefully removed by smoothing them out with the back of the nails of the right hand.

If the frame of the tympan rub against the platen, it will inevitably cause a slur or mackle: this can easily be remedied by moving the tympan so as to clear the platen. The joints or hinges of the tympan should be kept well screwed up, or slurring will be the consequence. When the thumb-piece of the frisket is too long, it always produces a slur: this can be prevented by filing off a part of it. Loose tympans will at all times slur the work, and great care must therefore be observed in drawing them perfectly tight. The paper drying at the edges will also cause a slur: this may be remedied by wetting the edges frequently with a sponge.

Slurring and mackling will sometimes happen from other causes: it will be well in such cases to paste corks on the frisket, or to tie as many cords as possible across it, to keep the sheet close to the tympan.

The pressman should make the boy roll slowly, or the rollers will be apt to jump, and cause a friar. To prevent the rollers from jumping or bounding, bridges or springs made of thin steel, to reach across the gutters, may be used: these springs should taper off at the ends, and having an oblong hole in each end, through which they may be tacked to the gutter-sticks. In very open forms, it may be necessary to put bearers or pieces of reglet where the blank pages occur at the end of the form, to prevent one end of the roller from falling down and leaving a friar at the opposite end. This difficulty may be obviated in a great measure by imposing the form in such a manner as to bring the blank pages in the centre. This mode should always be adopted for title-pages and other light matter.

Before the pressman leaves his work, he covers the heap of paper by first turning down a sheet like a token-sheet, to show where he left off, and then putting a quantity of the worked-off sheets on it, and a paper-board if convenient. Laying the blanket on the heap after leaving off work is a bad custom. If the paper be rather dry, it will be well to put wet wrappers on it, after damping the edges well. If the form be clean, he puts a sheet of waste paper between the tympan and frisket, and lays them down on the form; if it be dirty, it must be rubbed over with clean ley, and several waste sheets pulled on it, as before directed, to suck the dirty ley out of the cavities of the letter. On his return to work in the morning, he takes care to wet the tympan, provided the type be worn. If there should be any pages in the form particularly open, the parts of the tympan where they fall must not be wetted.